Dueling Cabinets

What I should be doing right now is deep cleaning my house. Instead I am painting random cabinets because even though I was settled on the charcoal Matt said, "I thought we were doing black?" so may I present the dueling cabinets:

I know what which color I am voting for, but I would love to get some more opinions. 

 Gray or black?

Christmas Cards

Do you send them?  I try to send them every other year.  A lot of our family is out of town and not connected to us through social media.  I have not received as many over the past holiday seasons, but when I do, I display them in our home on a cute card holder. Right now I am racking my brain to figure out where I displayed it last year... it will come to me.  Here is this year's card.  I am also ordering matching address labels.  My kids' school portrait preview included a $20 code for Shutterfly so I am taking advantage!

Here cards from Christmas past:

2010

2009

Rosie's ReVisited

It is tradition when we are in Huntsville visiting family to dine at Rosie's and if I have remembered my camera to snap a picture at the fountain.

2010

2012

Horsing around. This what my kids do best.  Last year Luke jumped in because he thought it was a "swimming pool".  On one of our first trips to Rosie's several years ago Wyatt took a wiz out here.  My father-in-law was horrified.  Memories.

Fall Pictures

I missed the prime fall foliage while on vacation but that was not going to deter me from trying to capture one good picture of the kids for the grandparents.  If I get one good picture I feel that I accomplished the goal.  This is the best of the best. I used PW's Colorized action. The first one is my kids' classic pose and the second on is more serious.  Which one do you like best? 

After the torture session the kids let off some steam at the playground.  

Let's Go Camping!

We went primitive camping last week for two nights at Mammoth National Park and had a blast! Matt, Wyatt, and I went camping with friends seven years ago so it is safe to say that it has been awhile.  My friend Mary loaned us some gear and helped me get organized. Mary and her crew are master campers. Her best piece of advice? Don't forget the scooters!  

Deer visited our site several times and were not afraid of my loud and rambunctious kids. Amazing!

Luke helping set up the tent.

So will we primitive camp again? Yes! Matt and I made a list of things that worked, those that did not and gear that we would like for the next time. There is nothing like falling asleep to the sounds of nature and waking up to a crisp fall morning with hot chocolate and pancakes over an open fire. After the initial set up there was a lot of time to relax and just enjoy each other.  

Painting Jitters

While we are waiting for our special order grout for the fireplace I decided to pick up a paint sample for the kitchen cabinets.  Originally we wanted java cabinets, but with the installation of the darker laminate we are are afraid that things are getting too dark.  I thought that a charcoal gray would be a good compromise and picked up Benjamin Moore's Kendall Charcoal sample and did this:

     

It is darker in person and really dark at night.  Will a charcoal gray kitchen be too dark?   I started playing with PS using this tutorial and came up with these "samples".  The problem is our flooring is dark not light and I failed to notice that when I made these. 

  

What do you think?

Recipe Organization

I had a goal last week and that was to organize my recipes.  This was no easy task and I spent HOURS doing it, but I am more than please with the end results.  I organized both my paper recipes and online recipes.  I love Pinterest, but without search options within personal boards I was searching through 350 pins to find that must have recipe.  The first thing I did was tackle the loose recipes and cooking magazines in three steps.  

Once I had my recipes divivded into categories I purchased a binder, page protectors, and Post-It tabs.

I found the cutest cover sheet and spine label from Banjelope.  I love it because it matches my kitchen!

Love the re-positional tabs.  I am sure that adaptations will be made over the years.

I created my own divider pages in Word and printed in a soft gray.  Again, obsessed with this coordinating. Someone help me. 

I used 4x6 photo pages for the loose cards. Clipped recipes were glued onto white sheets of paper (not pictured).

Adding the handwritten note that Grandma included with her famous cole slaw recipe is priceless.

Organizing my Pinterest recipes was time consuming and made me really hungry!  I created boards for each category as I did in my binder.  Now when I pin a new recipe I add it to the appropriate board.  This will reduce the number of re-pins and time spent searching in the future.

Although this project took me three days to accomplish I feel motivated to cook with organized resources.  And for the record this post contained the word "recipe" twelve times.  

Super Spot Remover Review

I am an avid pinner, but I will admit that most of those pins are just wishful thinking.  I picked up this chevron sweater dress for Madeline at a thrift shop for .52 cents! Can you believe that?!  I saw that there was a red waxy stain by the pockets, but decided that it was worth trying to save.

I have seen this pin a thousand times and decided to test it out.  All you need is blue Dawn dish soap, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide.

Mix one teaspoon of Dawn with two tablespoons of baking soda, and three to four teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide.

Apply to stain and rub a little. Because this was a sweater dress I kept the rubbing to a minimum to reduce pilling.  I let the solution sit for an hour, rinsed,  and then machine washed the dress.

Before

When I pulled the dress out of the wash the stain was gone!  I love that this super stain remover is inexpensive and uses ingredients that I already have on hand.  

After